TRENTON — This year’s team certainly did not pick up where last year’s left off.

The 2011-12 version of the Titans capped off their ECHL-worst 52 point season with six straight losses to end the year, cementing their status in the basement. But the first performance by this year’s squad had many wondering just how high their ceiling was.

If only for one night, Trenton made a statement that they weren’t going to be the league’s cellar dwellers anymore, skating past and often right through the Greenville Road Warriors en route to an impressive 3-1 win at Sun National Bank Center on Friday night in front of an announced crowd of 5,346.

The first 20 minutes set the tone that this team could be everything last year’s wasn’t. The short of it is that they could actually be good, which was the last of a multitude of four-letter words that could be used to describe many nights one season ago. But, delving deeper; the size, skill and physicality seen from the get-go was a pleasant departure from a team that could have been confused for the between periods “mites on ice” entertainment.

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Of the 17 active Titans skaters, 11 of them stand six-feet tall or greater, and the physical tone the team set early was complimented nicely by numerous odd-man chances set up by strong skating up the wings. Road Warriors defenseman Mike Marcou’s stick clipped the face of agile Titans forward Ryan Hayes, setting up the Titans’ first power play of the young season.

Trenton controlled the puck for the length of their man advantage, and it would be forward Stephen Schultz who gave the Titans their first lead of the season. The former Stars farmhand carried the puck from the edge of the right circle to the slot uncontested and fired a hard wrist shot that beat Greenville goalie Nathan Lieuwen high to his blocker side.

Another penalty taken around the perimeter by Greenville -- a hook on Trenton forward Andrew Conboy by Brandon Wong -- led to another Titans goal. Jason Akeson, who was AHL Adirondack’s leading scorer last season, fired a wrist shot through traffic from just a few feet inside the blue line that somehow evaded Lieuwen and doubled the Titans advantage to two.

Greenville got one of those two goals back on a Wong goal with just 3:27 left in the first after a terrible turnover by Tyler Hostetter after he and D-pair mate Blake Kessel couldn’t get out of their own zone. Wong chipped the puck that somehow snuck past Niko Hovinen on the short side and cut Trenton’s lead to one again.

Hayes’ second period deflection of a right point wrister by Mitch Versteeg put the Titans back up by two, but an Ian Slater double-minor for high sticking that put Trenton a man short for four minutes would make things interesting. And that’s where it became apparent that the goaltending was vastly improved from last year as well.

Hovinen was brilliant on the penalty kill, making several key saves; including getting a perfect read on a cross-ice pass to make the stop and another denial on the doorstep to kill the penalties. The 6-foot-7 Finnish-born Flyers prospect made 31 saves in his first North American game to help lead the Titans to victory, the first for the Trenton hockey franchise in a season-opening contest since 2007.